GPS mount

I'm partial to taking my hand-held GPS with me.

I currently keep it in the zipper pocket of my canvas cooler. This makes it hard to read, and I'm always worried about dropping it.

Anyone have one mounted to their boat? Where? How?

The speed-o-meter and the distance-from-the-landing o-meter are handy.

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Dan B
http://www.skidweeb.com/

I've actually given this a lot of thought, though I've yet to actually BUY a GPS. Due to the problem of downhaul lines on the mast base area and visibility problems of attaching it to either cross bars or lacings, I think a good alternative would be to buy/fabricate a fore arm band to hold the device, something like a Walkman holder for the upper are, but down lower.

The reason that I think this will work is that I have a wrist compass that I use very successfully over my wetsuit about two to three inches above my right wrist. I've gotten used to orienting and using recipricals to determine my compass course and this may or may not be an issue with a GPS, but it's a pretty small matter to cock your arm parallel to the direction of travel for an instant or two to get a reading. I also made a very functional handheld VHF radio harness to attach to my PFD using an existing waterproof radio bag/case and sticky-sided velcro. No reason that the same type of materials, pre-made or your customized, couldn't be employed for your application. Good luck

When I got my GPS a bought a mount (car I think). I cut a piece of lexan about 2-3" wide and about 8-10" long. Mount the mount on it, slide the lexan between the laces at the foot of the mast, loop the lanyard on the
GPS to the laces on the tramp. Snap it on the mount. Works great but I leave it off till the sail is raised as to not damage it. I've had my Getaway up to 18mph, and a little over 17mph a few times.

I have used two GPS on my Hobie... I have an older Magellan GPS which I placed in a zip lock bag and taped shut. I taped the bag to the center lacing of the tramp. The Magelan is supposed to be waterproof.... I always had my doubts. The battery compartment does not look like it would seal well. This was O.K. for navigation - it was not very useful for speed and angle readings - since I had to ask my crew to read it for me.
I also have a Foretrex (201? the one with non replaceable batteries) This thing is one of those wrist band / watch style GPS and it claims to be waterproof as well. I covered one opening in the case, which is IIRC for sound. I have used it all year now with out any additional protection and did not encounter any leaks. You can modify a screen so you can have speed and heading info in one screen. It has the ability to save the max. speed reading - this function seems to be effected by fast and random hand motions, since I regularly end up with max speeds outside a reasonable range (while the real max in my case on a Hobie 16 is around 21 m/h I get saved max speeds from the GPS unit in the 50's). The thing does not really have any mapping function - at least nothing that could be used for navigation.

Patrick